In the sixth and final season of LOST, as millions of us watched in the hopes that the mystery of the island would be revealed, a very simple explanation arose from the island’s leader, Jacob. The island is a cork. It is a cork on a particular wine bottle, and this particular wine represents evil. The island’s purpose is to prevent evil from spreading by blocking its escape route.

It seems J.J. Abrams is not done with the cork as a symbol for overcoming evil.

Fast forward to the book of “S.” One of its most mysterious hidden characters is Arquimedes de Sobreiro. Sobreiro means cork tree – the quercus suber to be precise. This tree is the indisputable source for most of the world’s wine cork population. Here are some interesting facts about the Sobreiro (cork tree) as it relates to “S.“

As S. and Corbeau leap from the mouth of the cave of the K– and plummet to the water below, S. has a memory of “corks flying on a New Year’s Eve. A room full of people, of faces and bodies and spirits. A fire in a hearth. A sense of himself as—well, as someone.” S. himself is a cork popping out of the cave’s exit.

The climax of “S.” involves barrels and barrels of wine. This wine is in the cellar of Vevoda, the arch-villain – the epitome of evil. S. has come to stop the evil from escaping. The monkey goes to every barrel and pulls out the bungs (corks) and lets the wine return to the earth from which it came. In this climax, S. changes his original plan and chooses not to kill Vevoda and his guests. Instead, S. gives them a healthy dose of avis veritatis (p434) – a poison which in a small enough dose induces truth-telling. Edvar VI drinks a glass of wine with avis veritatis (latin for bird of truth), shares the truth with the crowd, and gets a bullet for it. Vevoda has no heir to carry on his evil ways because the “truth is out.”

Sobreiro, and S., are corks – they are men who have come to prevent evil from escaping into the world. Different stories, sametradition (p404). Initially, though, S. fights evil with evil – a no-win proposition. It is only in the climax, as S. follows the monkey’s example, he simply removes the cork of Vevoda’s stored-up evil and returns it to the ground from which it came.

The cork material of a Sobreiro (cork tree) is harvested from the bark without harming the tree itself. Every 9 years the cork bark replenishes itself completely and it is reharvested. The tree continues to live. The cork bark is the substance from which all corks are made – whether Arquimedes de Sobreiro or S.

They all come from the same tree of life.

In Portugal, not far from Lisbon, is the largest and most famous Sobreiro of all. It is called The Whistler Tree. From this one tree, over 1,000,000 corks have come to life in its lifetime of over 200 years.It’s name comes from the innumerable birds that land and sing within the tree’s canopy. Our book “S.” is replete with birds and sailors who whistle. Our book climaxes with S. and Sola blowing whistles with “avian warbles and trills that allow them to communicate behind enemy lines” as they approach Vevoda in the wine cellar (p416).

Sobreiro is the cork oak tree – the tree of life that contains and offers the substance from which all corks are made. The cork, whether in LOST or “S.”, represents those dedicated to containing evil without becoming evil itself.

There are several underlying elements of an unseen armature (I prefer the word armature to theme) within “S” that give the book its form. Some portions of the armature are apparent…

Good vs. Evil

Self-awareness (“Know Thyself”)

Love

Some parts of the armature, however, are harder to see until our eyes become accustomed so well to the book and its complex story that we begin to see them emerge slowly from the text. This post is about one of these.

Consider the following portions of “S” to help your eyes adjust…

The Chapter 10 cipher has been solved (mostly). What is perplexing is the sixth column of letters don’t make sense. There is a column of letters that do make sense (LONOE), but we have no apparent way of knowing what specific geographical coordinates should be dialed in on the EOTVOS wheel that make sense.

Sobreiro means cork oak (quercus suber) – the kind of cork that floats on water and that is used to seal wine bottles. The Portuguese word for this tree is Sobreiro. Signe Rabe was born in Perpignan, France (see page 361). The economy there depends on the cork oak tree, which grows there. More on this.

Arquimedes seems a clear reference to Archimedes, who is most famous for his story of sitting in a hot bath, suddenly receiving insight into a particularly challenging problem, and shouting Eureka! (I found it!)

Caldeira comes from the latin caldaria, meaning a warm bath or a cooking pot. Also used to describe an active volcanic crater.

Eric goes to Brazil to find Caldeira, and he does. He finds her in Maraú, Brazil. On the postcard to Jen he writes I FOUND HER! (p. 201)

One of Jen’s favorite words in “S” is palimpsest (p. 379). One of the world’s most famous palimpsests is Archimedes’ Palimpsest.

What begins at the water shall end there, and what ends there shall once more begin.

These elements of “S” seem to me to be puzzle pieces that form a recognizable object, or element of the armature: Archimedes’ Principle. Archimedes’ Principle covers water displacement and, more interesting, buoyancy.

It was seeing this subtle focus on Archimedes’ Principle that led me to my own moment of Eureka!

Eric shouted “I FOUND HER!” to Jen when he discovered Caldeira (“warm bath”) in Maraú, Brazil. The geographical coordinates of Maraú are 14°06′10″S 39°00′54″W. These coordinates give us the missing column of letters for the Chapter 10 cipher: LONOE.

It appears to me that FXC deliberately left one column of letters in the cipher a mystery in order to quietly announce her eventual whereabouts to VMS in case he was still actually alive and could come and find her.

I sense there is much, much more to the armature of Archimedes’ Principle to help us understand Sobreiro and The Archer’s Tales. I am interested in hearing your thoughts and findings as you read deeper into “S”.